This week we're speaking to Alex, founder of Onigo. They started off providing in person escape room experiences, but have very successfully adapted to the world of virtual. You can book their awesome escape rooms through Doozy today! 

For the uninitiated, can you tell us a bit about what an escape room is?


An escape room is a game in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in order to accomplish a specific goal within a specific time limit. In a physical escape room, the goal is often to escape from the physical room where the game is being played, i.e. by solving a final clue to open a door. Our virtual escape rooms feature all the same elements delivered online via our game website. However, as you can't be physically in a room together, we replicate this using private breakout rooms on our video platform. When a team solves their final clue they are able to exit the breakout room and return to the main room to see if they have been the first team to finish!

How did you get into running escape rooms?


My background is in designing and delivering live events, specifically experiences which help build stronger business teams. Escape rooms contain excellent ingredients for team building - collaboration, problem-solving, strategy, working under pressure and some light competition. Above all they are super fun and engaging, unlike some traditional and dare I say, slightly outdated, team building concepts. Therefore, those basic ingredients of an escape game became the cornerstone of Onigo experiences as we looked to design a fun and different team activity way to bring colleagues together. 

How has lockdown changed your experiences?


Prior to lockdown, we hosted live outdoor escape game events where teams embarked on a mission against the clock to find and solve and clues hidden in the real-world. As coronavirus hit, all our live events had to be cancelled and we so we went about adapting out experiences. I founded Onigo because I wanted to help boost connectedness and well-being by delivering experiences that brought people closer together. With lockdown I realised that now more than ever do people need connection, particularly amongst colleagues who are working from home. So we created a series of virtual escape rooms which enabled work teams to come together, boost morale and connect through a shared experience. We can host up to 300 people in a single event and yet the escape room is played in small teams of 4 - 8 using private breakout rooms to enable everyone to participate whilst strengthening team bonds. The escape rooms feature a series of cryptic puzzles that require finding and using some basic household items; creating a unique and interactive experience. Once a team has cracked the final code, they are returned back to the main room by the host in a big reveal moment to see who escaped first!


What do remote teams enjoy the most about your escape rooms?


Participants love the interactivity and variety of the puzzles as well as the event format which enables everyone to get fully involved whilst enjoying a bit of competition between the teams. We also consistently receive amazing feedback about event hosts who do a fantastic job engaging participants and facilitating a great experience. With this, we are really proud to be rated 'Excellent' on TrustPilot and to have delivered events to over 750 clients including the likes of Amazon, Google, Barclays, Disney, Sainsbury's, Deloitte and BMW.

Ready to jump into one of Onigo's escape rooms? Book now!

In this week's instalment of meet the partner, you'll get to know the fabulous Laura - yoga aficionado. She'll be kicking off our free, live streamed classes on Wednesday with On The Chair Yoga! Guaranteed to brighten up your week. Keep your eyes peeled for a link coming soon. You can also book private classes, personalised for your teams needs, all within Doozy!

My Mum is into Yoga and took me along with her to my first Yoga class at a local village hall several years ago. Until then I had always been very interested in fitness and used to work out at the gym a few times a week, but had been feeling that I’d reached a plateau and was looking for something new. I actually expected Yoga to be too slow and calm for me, but I enjoyed the class so much that it completely blew all pre-conceptions out of the water. I couldn’t compare the sense of peace I experienced to anything else, and I wanted to understand Yoga on a deeper level. From there I sought out as many different teachers and classes as I could find and then began training to be a teacher myself.

What benefits will Yoga bring to home workers?

Managing our time and the many different roles we have to fulfil in our lives can be extremely challenging at times, and if something has to give, nine times out of ten it will be any time we had aside for ourselves. Although working at home has its benefits, such as saving time and money on commuting, the danger is that our boundaries between work and home can be blurred in both the physical and mental spaces. This makes it even less likely for us to put time aside for our own wellbeing since it’s too tempting and accessible to jump into work-mode at any given moment. Yoga lessons enable you to find that space just for you, both physically and mentally, in which you can have a break and switch off from the constant mind-chatter and ever-growing to-do lists. Sitting down for long periods of times and hunching over computers pulls our bodies into positions which cause all sorts of aches and pains, and Yoga will help to un-do all of those actions, bringing your body into a state of balance and ease. 

I love both Vinyasa Flow and Ashtanga Yoga, although they are both completely different from each other. There is an infinite amount of sequences available in Vinyasa Flow, and I enjoy creating sequences to suit specific needs and preferences. It’s this freedom to explore your body and your practice in Vinyasa which really appeals to me, and ironically, it’s the structure and discipline of Ashtanga which I equally love. Ashtanga Yoga follows the same set of sequences, enabling yourself to make progress each and every time, which is really motivating. I suppose it depends how I feel on the day!

How should a complete beginner get started?

Great question. The Yoga Sutras (the collection of writings on theory and practice of Yoga), make it clear that when you decide to go to your first Yoga class you have actually already begun practicing Yoga, because Yoga is so much more than a physical practice, it is the union between body, mind and spirit. So to be interested in Yoga shows that you already have a desire to connect with and find time for your true, authentic self. Of course many people come to Yoga to improve their bodies physically, which is also great, but traditionally the physical benefits are a side product of Yoga, rather than the main event. So my advice for complete beginners is to not worry at all about how you look or whether you’re doing certain positions ‘right’, or that other people are so much more advanced than you. It really doesn't matter. Take each class as it comes, continue returning to your mat and explore many different types of yoga with different teachers before finding what really works for you. 

What do you have in store for your new classes on Doozy?

I’m so excited for these new classes on Doozy! They will be in the style of Vinyasa Flow so that we have the freedom and flexibility to explore lots of different things. Each class will integrate breathwork and meditation (Vinyasa Flow is a moving meditation) as well as the physical postures, in order to bring a sense of peace into the mind and ease into the body. I’ll focus mostly on creating sequences which un-do the more common aches and pains that officer-workers experience, also thinking about anti-arthritic movements and bringing down levels of stress and anxiety. We’ll begin with Chair Yoga classes which should make it accessible for everyone.

Are you ready to meet work away your aches and pains with Laura? Book one of her classes today!

Chair Yoga - On the matt yoga (beginner) - On the matt yoga (intermediate)

Welcome to our series where we introduce you to the wonderful partners we have on Doozy. In this first instalment, we talk to Jen who hosts a wide range of crafty classes to bring your team together!

What do you like most about running events? 

I love creating the classes, I like seeing something or having an idea pop in my head and work out how to make it come to life, then seeing people create their own is really awesome.

I started MOS because I couldn't find a class that fitted the fun, bright vibe I was looking for, for my friend's hen do. I wanted to create a class that would result In a group of friends making a flamboyant set of accessories (crowns, epaulettes or glitter jackets) that would end with everyone on their night out owning a wild bride tribe vibe. When Covid came, I needed to quickly change to events that would work online, so the neon sign was born!

What do you like the most about hosting your events? 

I love seeing people's faces once they have mastered a new skill! Everything at Master of Some is accessible and fun, meaning that anyone will be able to create what they've signed up to and enjoy the finished product!

What’s the most ridiculous thing someone has made? 

Well, having done a lot of hen dos you can imagine what happens in those :). In one neon class someone swapped their canvas for a tree and moulded the neon wire round their cactus, it was so creative - loved it!

Are you ready to meet the fabulous Jen? Book one of her events today!

Neon Signs - Wood Burning - Sunbeam Crown - Epic Epaulettes

Follow Jen on Instagram @ Master of Some Events

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Meet the Partner: Alex (Onigo)

Meet the partner: Laura Shurden Yoga

Meet the Partner: Jen (Master of Some)

Xero: Launching Doozy in a pandemic